dae3dae3 Wrote: > I think many people in the Open Source community are offended by the > idea of something being straight forward and easy to use. I think the > thought is that if anybody can find and use the software it isn't cool > anymore. > It's not that simple. Most people who create software want people to use it. In fact, they want as many people as possible to use it. Otherwise, why write it or put it on a website? The problem is many fold: (a) Designing good UIs is a skill not shared by many programmers (b) What you consider an easy to use UI may very well be the exact opposite of what I consider an easy to use UI. (c) Writing good documentation is very hard, and typically not something your average programmer enjoys (d) Most programmers don't understand the importance of good documentation & presentation (e) Most OSS is written to "scratch an itch" - in other words the author writes it to fulfill his/her needs and stops as soon as it does so. If others also find it useful then great, but the attitude (rightly, IMHO) is don't complain about what you didn't pay for.
As it happens, most of this applies to all software, certainly not just OSS. For example, last time I bought a copy of Windows I don't recall getting a printed manual. If I want help for media player my first stop is usually google, just like if I want help with EAC. The online help for most commercial software is pretty awful. > > It may be appropritate that the FLAC webpage keeps the resources but it > is in Slim Devices best interests to allow their customers to have the > best experience possible with their product and since third party tools > are required to use their product it is their best interest to provide > some guidance. They don't have to take a stand and say that what they > provide is the "best" answer and everbody else is therefore an idiot. > At the end of the day, the easier the product is to use and get the > maximum quality out of the more boxes they sell. If they don't sell > boxes they go out of business. A product like this is sold by word of > mouth as much as anything else. If an end users experience is they went > on this website bought a product and followed the directions and now > they can listen to CD quality music without having to change CD's they > are going to tell their buddies who will do the same. Can't argue with that - it would certainly be beneficial to have some docs on the site. However, that takes time to do well, and being a small company there's only so much resource available. Personally, given that I know how to use EAC, I'd prefer they spent that time on fixing bugs. It's up to Sean & co to figure out how they manage these conflicting demands. In the meantime, you have the opportunity to make a difference. Go over to the Wiki and document what you've learned. By using EAC and FLAC you're getting a lot of people's hard work for free - this would be a good way of giving something back. -- radish _______________________________________________ ripping mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/ripping
